Just thinking...

 Christmas Day is over but the joy and the celebration continues all year long!  Jesus is truly the reason for every season - every month - every day - all year long!  Here we go together in 2014!  Can't wait!

Commit Yourself to Enjoying a Real Christmas

I’m so excited – our season of celebrating the birth of Jesus is here.  Don’t let anything or anyone rob you of this month-long celebration.  As you start making your lists; shopping; baking cookies; decorating; and attending parties…commit yourself to enjoying Christmas.  Let me clarify that…commit yourself to enjoying a real Christmas.

What is a real Christmas?  A real Christmas keeps Christ in the forefront.  Celebrating a real Christmas means taking the time to revere God. A true Christmas celebration recognizes the significance of Jesus’ birth that night in the manger. An authentic Christmas season joins the angel chorus in worshipping the God Who sent us Jesus.

Luke 2:8-14 (HCSB)
⁸ In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.
⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:
¹¹ Today a Savior, who is •Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David.
¹² This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a feeding trough.”
¹³ Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:
¹⁴ Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!,,

We have 22 days to set aside for praising God and offering thanksgiving for what he has done!   Here’s my suggestion for making an intentional effort to honor God this Christmas season:  Make a Glory to God in the Highest Vessel

1.      Use a Christmas Box, or a jar you decorate, or maybe you have a special container that you treasure…

2.      Each day write out a praise for a gift you receive from Jesus [Example: I praise you Jesus for your gift of forgiveness for my sins]; read it out loud; and put it in the Glory to God in the Highest container. (Trust me, you’ll find at least 22 blessings you receive from Jesus and the bonus is that…thinking of them helps you to focus on Jesus)

3.      Divide up the story of the birth of Jesus and read it in both books as a part of your “Real Christmas” celebration.  These are the Scriptures: Matthew 1: 1-25; Luke 2:1-20;      { Okay, let’s do the math…. 25+ 20 = 45 verses….you have 22 days to read these 45 verses  … this isn’t a big task…if you want, you can read just 2 verses a day}

Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to rediscover a holy reverence of God and the blessed reason why the baby Jesus was born!   It is possible to over shop, over spend, over eat, and over commit  but it is never possible to over celebrate the birth of Jesus – our Lord and Savior!

Some people will miss the mark and spend all their time and energy on traditions that might not lift up Jesus.  Please let us be deliberate and not miss the wonder of Christmas. If we leave Christ out of Christmas, we've lost the whole reason for this wonderful season of celebration.

Take the time to remember the mystery of God becoming man and meditate on the love of God who gave us the best gift of all – salvation through Jesus Christ!

Enjoy your family, enjoy your traditions, and enjoy the sheer wonder that God became man, born of a virgin, in fulfillment of prophecies. And that He was born to die, to take away the sins of the world and to rise again!

Joyfully,
Yvonne